DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Painful truth about the ethos of the NHS

It's impossible not to be appalled by the hounding of whistleblower Dr Raj Mattu by ruthlessly bullying NHS managers.

Desperately worried that patients were dying needlessly in crowded bays at a Coventry hospital, this brilliant cardiologist went public with his concerns.

The response of the NHS bureaucracy to this courageous act was to suspend Dr Mattu, make 200 false allegations against him, including ‘heinous’ claims of sexual misconduct, and finally give him the sack.

Raj and Sangita Mattu, pictured at their home in the village of Heathcote, Warwickshire.

Even yesterday, after being found guilty of unfair dismissal in a case that cost the taxpayer £10million, managers arrogantly insisted they had done nothing wrong.

This is but the latest example of how the Health Service routinely bullies and gags whistleblowers, covers up lethal incompetence and wastes huge amounts of public money.

But then it has not been a good week for the NHS.

Waiting lists are now at their highest for three years – with nearly three million patients currently queuing for treatment.

As we reveal today, the head of the NHS’s own watchdog, in what is hardly a vote of confidence, has opted to undergo his own hip surgery privately.

Today we also report the horrific case of dying Sarah Ann Gray, 81, who was left ‘screaming in pain’ at a hospital in Manchester while a doctor sat nearby ‘playing on a computer’ – because he was ‘not on shift’.

Then there was the terrifying revelation by health quango NICE that one in every 16 hospital patients suffer infections due to poor staff hygiene. How depressing that, in 2014, doctors and nurses need to be told to wash their hands properly.

Of course, it is all too easy to knock the NHS. At its best, the Health Service’s countless dedicated staff continue to provide a superb service.

But, as the cases above demonstrate, there appears to be something disturbingly wrong with the ethos of this State behemoth.

Prime Minister David Cameron 'should take no lessons' from the party in charge during the Mid Stafs hospital scandal

There is certainly no lack of money. Over the past decade, its funding has increased from £57billion a year to an annual £110billion.

But all too often the NHS appears to be run for the benefit of its employees – the lion’s share of the additional money having been swallowed by wages, including the recruitment of 5,000 extra managers – rather than the patients.

GPs, for instance, who were handed disastrous contracts paying them more for doing less work, have refused repeated pleas to open out-of-hours – despite the misery they are inflicting on their patients and the strain being put on A&E wards.

The problem is that the Tories are understandably reluctant to confront the failings of the NHS for fear of being labelled ‘nasty’ by Labour.

But David Cameron should take no lessons from the party who presided over the inhumane, sickening deaths of hundreds of patients at Mid Staffs and introduced a poisonous culture of cover-up and bullying that remains to this day.

The truth is the NHS cannot continue indefinitely in its present state.

Politicians should stop posturing about this and start an urgent debate on whether a monolithic and increasingly uncompassionate system, run entirely by the State, is the most efficient means of delivering this country’s ever more complex healthcare needs.

In defence of family

This Easter, the Mail congratulates Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, for speaking out so powerfully against Britain’s politicians who undermine the traditional family.

What a pity his successors have been too obsessed with global warming, food banks and gay rights to defend the greatest institution on earth. It’s families that create self-reliant, aspirational, decent citizens – not politicians.